Wildlife biologist Matt Poole spent Friday studying the birds that flew within a 7-mile radius of his Matador Wildlife Management Area. After a few years of participating in the National Audubon Society’s Christmas Bird Count — which this year started Dec. 14 and goes through Jan. 5 — he’s found some effective methods.

“Basically, we just cruise down the road,” he said. “If we hear a bird we’ll stop and count how many birds we actually see.”

But counting birds is actually the second step in the process — first, you have to identify them. Some birds’ noises are easier to determine than others. Bobwhite quail, for instance, sound fairly distinctive. Sparrows can be trickier.

Nearly all wild birds will scatter when you approach, but some are even more shy than others.

“Some species of birds, they may be so secretive that we can’t see ’em, but we know they’re there,” Poole said.

Armed with binoculars and a notepad, the biologist enters bird territory with the demeanor of a hunter, quiet but alert. To attract the winged creatures, he sometimes imitates their calls and trill noises.

The Matador Wildlife Management Area is located between Paducah and Childress, about two hours northeast of Lubbock. Poole and a small group of co-workers and volunteers met at sunrise Friday, then split up to cover more ground. Poole’s wife, Laura, loved watching the creatures explore their surroundings, particularly the ones such as Mountain bluebirds she hadn’t expected to see.

“I was shocked at the species you don’t know are native,” she said. “They were so beautiful, just to watch them flutter about.”

Caroline Ellison, another biologist, teamed with her husband, Jere, to count birds in different sections of the wildlife area. The couple were particularly impressed with the Sharp-shinned Hawks they saw. The species tends to hide in thick brush, making only occasional appearances.

“They’re kind of a small hawk,” she said. “I don’t see them all that often.”

How would Poole describe them?

“Cool,” he said with a laugh. “These Sharp-shinned hawks, they’re really fast and they can maneuver in dense brush.”

In the past 12 years Poole and his crew have participated, they’ve counted an average of 66 species and 4,637 individuals. This year they observed 77 species — 11 more than average — but fewer individual birds.

Counts were higher than normal for the Ring-necked duck, Northern Harrier, Red-tailed hawk and American Kestrel. They did not see any Killdeer or Wilson’s Snipe, which in typical counts are common species.

But numbers are a rough estimate of how many birds are actually there; they’re heavily reliant on human factors such as the number of counters and their skill level.

Nonetheless, they’re accurate enough for researchers to notice some trends. During the drought a few years ago, counts were noticeably lower.

“We did see a lot fewer birds in 2012 and ’11,” Poole said.

And if trends reflect possible impact from any human activity — growing a new type of vegetation, for example — staff will gain insight.

“It’s just some data to kind of tell us what we’re doing, and if we’re doing a good job or not,” Poole said.

Bird counts

Audubon’s annual Christmas Bird Count draws birders from across the Western Hemisphere. The counts, organized by the Audubon society, aim to gather data to help monitor and study bird populations.

There are still scheduled bird counts planned around West Texas through next week. Anyone from professional birders to novices with little to no bird-watching experience can participate by signing up in advance with area organizers listed on the Audubon society’s website: http://www.audubon.org/join-christmas-bird-count.

While the Matador Wildlife Management Area has participated just over a decade, counts have been held in other areas for 117 years.

Closer to home, Anthony Hewetson led counts the past couple weeks in Lubbock County, and Muleshoe and has another one scheduled for Saturday at White River Lake.

The local birder and his crew of 13 or so observers have so far documented 130 bird species.

His favorite? Black Phoebe, a dark-colored bird with a white belly. The species is usually found about 200 miles south of the Lubbock area.

“That bird was really out of range,” he said.

Another observation in Lubbock County — waterfowl numbers were low. Hewetson theorizes that’s because count time was the morning of Dec. 17, just before a cold front struck. He’s observed more waterfowl since then, albeit not in a formal count.

“It’s kind of interesting the impact weather can have on our counts,” he said.

And while the focus of the event is birds, Hewetson and his counters monitored other wildlife. Observers found a turtle called a red-eared slider, two butterfly species — orange sulphur and dainty sulphur — and 11 mammal species, including bobcats and gray foxes.

At the Muleshoe National Wildlife Refuge on Saturday, he noticed more birds than in past recent years. Not coincidentally, the refuge appears to have significantly recovered from drought.

“The refuge has water in all three lakes again,” he said.

Sandhill cranes — a migrating species that visits the refuge every year — have also arrived.

How to participate

Join in on the Audubon Society’s Christmas Bird Count in area events through Jan. 5